Sticky messengers from the past - archaeological applications of chromatography

6 Sticky messengers from the past - archaeological applications of chromatography 

Many of the organic residues found in archaeological contexts are associated with ceramic vessels the additional data provided by such analyses can, 

Cooking, storage. Differential absorption. Carbonization. Thermal alterations. 

Fatty acids have been reported in a large number of analyses of archaeological residues. They are often associated with cooking vessels (Charters et al. 1993), lamps (Evershed et al. 1997b), or transport vessels 

Soils have also been examined directly, not for evidence of possible contamination, but as a study of manuring practice in medieval to early modern Orkney, Scotland. The sterols campesterol, sitosterol, and 5/1-stigmastanol were used as biomarkers for ruminant animal manure and coprostanol for omnivorous animal manure, with hyodeoxycholic acid used to further define the manure as coming from pigs (Bull et al. 1999, Simpson et al. 1999). It is rare to be able to extract sterols from such samples because their natural abundance is generally low. If they can be found, however, then they are useful as unambiguous biomarkers for either plants or animals. 

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